By Mali Bickley and Jim Carleton
Students Without Borders
Global Collaborative Learning Connects School to the Real World
T eachers from middle school on up are familiar with the com- plaints of students questioning
the need for instruction they think
they’ll never use once they get out of
school. In contrast, lessons that have
an obvious practical purpose or, better
yet, make a clear difference in the real
world right now, seem to make sense
and to engage their interest.
Using information and communication technology (ICT), such as
Web conferencing and wikis, to connect students to their peers in other
countries and cultures is one way to
engage our students. But it’s not just
about technology. Global collaborative
learning is about connecting students
in communities of learners around the
world so they can work together on
projects that make a difference locally and globally. It is about building
relationships and achieving authentic,
meaningful learning. And it lends
purpose to lessons and drives just-in-time learning for teachers as well as
students as they become co-learners.
Organizations such as the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) and TakingITGlobal
facilitate collaborative partnerships
between classrooms, students, communities, and educational partners
around the globe. These projects use
ICT to help students work together to
accomplish meaningful tasks, solve
problems, and learn new perspectives
from their peers. Creative processes
that allow for a grassroots style of
learning and questioning enrich students’ critical thinking skills. What
better way to learn about such difficult
subjects as war, natural disasters, child
soldiers, and segregated education
than from other students who are
involved? They learn with the world
rather than just about the world.
New Perspectives
The Machinto Project is a K– 12
literature-based iEARN program that
draws inspiration from the Japanese
picture book Machinto, which is about
a 3-year-old girl who is outside playing in Hiroshima, Japan, on the morning of August 6, 1945. She is tragically killed by the atomic bomb but is
20 Learning & Leading with Technology | November 2009
